CANDYMAN
Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman, Candyman! Say his name five times while looking in a mirror and he will appear similar to the tale of Bloody Mary. The visit will not be amicable, as he will meticulously chop up your limbs one by one with his hook hand. He then uses your blood to paint a picture of what is left of your lifeless body as a trophy of his conquest. He is vicious and he is out for blood. Rodney Blacksmith was the son of a former slave. His father owned a lucrative business during wartime. As he became older and more independent he would help his father with his business. Additionally, he was an aspiring art student. He had talent. In doing business he would often meet strong-minded businessmen and the beautiful women that accompanied them. While working Rodney met and fell in love with a beautiful woman named Hannah. She was not an African American woman. At the time, interracial dating was frowned upon. The two of them dated secretly for if her father found out, Rodney could face death. Hannah announced that she was expecting their first child and Rodney honored his responsibilities and asked Hannah to marry him. Rodney and Hannah planned to spend the rest of their lives together. Hannah could no longer hide her pregnancy from her family. When her parents found out that she was expecting, their first question was who was the father. Hannah was reluctant to give the information but she eventually sat them down to share her bizarre love story. Her father, Paul, was not one bit excited about her pregnancy or her relationship with the, “Shop-working, black boy.” Paul had questions about how the Black boy would financially support his daughter and future grandchild and even more questions about how their family would look to the public being that there first grandchild was half black. After two glasses of aged Scotch, Paul decided that the only way to resolve the situation his daughter had gotten herself into was to make the Black boy and the baby disappear. The next morning, he pulled Hannah out of bed, forced her to have an abortion and forbade her to ever see Rodney again. Paul then searched through every shop in the downtown area looking for who he thought would be Rodney. After no luck, he returned home. He wrote a letter to Rodney in Hannah’s handwriting explaining that she no longer loved Rodney and that she was uninterested in ever seeing him again. He sent the letter off to the last known address for Rodney. Paul feared Rodney would come to his home to seek answers from Hannah so he had his construction workers build a cottage hidden in the back of their property; that’s where Hannah would live for the rest of her life. She would be fed and clothed but she would never see the light of day or Rodney ever again. Rodney received the letter and was outraged. He did not want it to be true. When he tried to call Hannah there was no dial tone. He could no longer reach her. When he visited her home, her family explained to him that she no longer lived there. No one would give him Hannah’s new location. Rodney left feeling as if a part of him had died. Killing two birds with one stone, Rodney lost his future wife and child. Over the years, Rodney took to drinking and drugs. Things that he once enjoyed no longer made him smile. Music he once loved no longer made him dance. He was stuck in a daze; somewhere between reality and a horrific dream. Rodney was lost without Hannah. Out of rage, would cut himself. Cutting was something he did in his spare time after painting could no longer heal him. When he could no longer feel pain he began cutting others. One night while on a drunken binge he removed his own hand and replaced it with a hook he once used for hanging his hats. From then he coined the name, “Candyman.” Candyman would appear in the homes of those who would never expect it, kill them and paint their pictures of their remains. To him it was a stress reliever. A coping mechanism. A way to flush out the memories of his beloved, Hannah. Citations Barker, Clive. 1985. The Forbidden. In the Flesh, vol 5 (pg. 18-41). ''United Kingdom. "Candyman (1992)". ''Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-08-12. Jasmine Pope, Comm100w